The semantics of Wahhabi hatred – What motivates Terror’s ideology?

Over the past days Wahhabism, the dogma enacted by the likes of Daesh (aka ISIL), Boko Haram, al-Qaeda, al-Nusra and so other infamous acronyms claimed new horrors in both the Middle East and Africa – adding to an already long list of atrocities, all in the name of a religious cleansing which perversity appears to know no bound.

In Nigeria, the Boko Haram, a Wahhabi-inspired group which pledged its allegiance to Daesh back in 2014, went on a rampage against communities in the north, specifically targeting children.

“The Saturday night [January 30] assault on the outskirts of the Nigerian city of Maiduguri – the birthplace of Boko Haram – lasted for hours, targeting villages and camps housing some 25,000 refugees, AP has reported, citing survivors and soldiers at the scene. By Sunday afternoon, 86 bodies had collected, officials said, adding that another 62 victims were being treated for burns,” reported Shafaqna on February 2.

As Nigeria was left to burn and mourn, Wahhabi militants in Syria chose to target the holy shrine of Lady Zaynab ibn Ali – the daughter of Islam’s first Imam: Imam Ali, and the grand-daughter of the Prophet Muhammad. A grand lady of Islam, a pillar a valour, piety and patience before unjust hardship, Lady Zaynab’s shrine was a source of light, a fountain of hope for millions of Muslims around the world.

Under Wahhabism, praying at her shrine, at any shrine for that matter, has been declared a heresy before God … From the lips of those who preach murder, prayers have been made forbidden -remembrance of the holy has been branded a sin.

Muslims it needs to be said do not recognize themselves in Wahhabism! Whether Sunnis or Shiites, Muslims share in their attachment, respect and utmost admiration of Ahlul-Bayt – the House of the Prophet.

In Sahih Muslim[1] [a prominent scholar of Islam], there is a chapter named “Chapter of Virtues of the Companions”. Inside this chapter, there is a section called “Section of the Virtues of the Ahlul-Bayt of the Prophet”. The tradition is known as “The Tradition of Cloak/Mantle” (Hadith al-Kisaa), and is as follows:

Narrated by Aisha [wife of the Prophet]: “One day the Prophet came out afternoon wearing a black cloak (upper garment or gown; long coat), then al-Hasan Ibn ‘Ali came and the Prophet accommodated him under the cloak, then al-Husayn came and entered the cloak, then Fatimah came and the Prophet entered her under the cloak, then ‘Ali came and the Prophet entered him to the cloak as well. Then the Prophet recited: “Verily Allah intends to keep off from you every kind of uncleanness O’ People of the House (Ahlul-Bayt), and purify you a perfect purification (the last sentence of Verse 33:33).”

Against all schools of thoughts and jurisprudence, against the teachings of the Quran and the oral tradition of the Prophet, against common sense and logic, Wahhabis came to legislate over what the Quran declares most holy.

Still Wahhabism claims itself of Islam. How many tenets of Islam will radicals need to break, trample over and desecrate for the public to admit to its irreligiosity?

How long before Muslims’ cries of terror against Wahhabism are translated into a mass denunciation of its Islamic characteristics?

One cannot simply proclaim oneself a Muslim. Being Muslim implies following and abiding to a certain set of beliefs … Islam is not a grand religious buffet where individuals can cherry pick their traditions and interpret the Scriptures as they see fit.

The heretics

Wahhabis have done exactly that – powered by the lunacy one of pseudo-scholar: Muhammad ibn Abdel-Wahhab, who himself rooted his ideology on the ranting of another religious sociopath: Ibn Taymiyyah, generations of bigots have been raised on bloodshed and tyranny.

If books have been written on Muhammad ibn Abdel-Wahhab, few know of the true origin of his religious intolerance. To understand the horror which is Wahhabism, one needs to turn to Ibn Taymiyyah

A scholar of the 13th century, Ibn Taymiyyah was a reformer – a man whose ambition was to “cleanse” Islam and bring its practice back to what he believed was a purer, and more traditional practice of Islam, as envisioned by the last Prophet of God. While he might have been a man of great knowledge and recollection, in that he was quite capable of reciting verses of the Quran at the drop of a hat, his understanding of the Scriptures left something to be desired.

Dhahabi[2] wrote of him, “I never saw anyone faster at recalling the Qur’anic verses dealing with subjects he was discussing, or anyone who could remember hadith texts more vividly.” Shun by his contemporaries, he was accused of apostasy over his propensity to give God men’s attributes, when in fact God says in the Quran: “There is nothing whatsoever like unto him.”

The prominent Hanafi scholar Muhammad Zahid al-Kawthari[3] wrote on Ibn Taymiyyah “Whoever thinks that all the scholars of his time joined in a single conspiracy against him from personal envy should rather impugn their own intelligence and understanding, after studying the repugnance of his deviations in beliefs and works, for which he was asked to repent time after time and moved from prison to prison until he passed on to what he’d sent ahead.”

While Ibn Taymiyyah had a malleable mind with an avid memory, his ability to grasp religious concepts were greatly limited by the dryness of his heart, and his failure to embrace both compassion and tolerance. A prolific writer and an impassionate preacher, Ibn Taymiyyah was nevertheless a zealot, a man whose religious teachings were declared heretics by both Sunni and Shiite scholars. As Imam Subki put it: “his learning exceeded his intelligence.”

At the core-root of Wahhabism dogma lies Ibn Taymiyyah’s rejection of Ahlul-Bayt, and the principle of shafa’ah (intercession – when one calls upon a saint, a prophet or any such holy person to intercede in their favour before God).

Because both those principles sit central to Shia Islam, Wahhabis have bene most vicious in their attacks, arguing that whomever will in fact display any propensity to love, and or intercedes before Ahlul-Bayt stand a reformer, a polytheist and an apostate.

Little do of course Wahhabis realise that Shafa’ah is in fact a long-standing tradition, one inscribed in both the Torah and the Bible … and that Muslims’ love for Ahlul-Bayt is actually central to their declaration of faith.

Shafa΄ah is not to ask the prophet or the Imams (Ahlul-Bayt) for protection or to ward off calamity or to bring happiness and success. Rather, it is to plead God by the sake of those who are nearer to Him.

Incapable of understanding that worshippers do not in fact pray to the shrines, but instead call onto religious figures to intercede in their favour, as the Prophet would do himself for his ummah [community] on the last day, Wahhabis have worked to cut off Muslims from a vital spiritual link, denying them their religious right and duty.

“O’ People! I am about to be called upon [by the Most High] and so I will soon be leaving you. I will bequeath you two most precious matters. They are: The book of Allah, as a cord extended from heaven to earth, and my Itra [family], Ahlul Bayt. Allah, the Benevolent and the All-Knowing has informed me that these two will be inseparable (from each other) till they reach me at the Pool of Blessings in Heaven. See then, O’ people, how well you are to deal with them after I depart [from this world].” Prophet Muhammad as narrated by al-Thaqalain.

By all religious standards, and according to all criteria, Wahhabism is in fact a heresy.

If we are ever to defeat this furious terror we might do well to learn of its origins and beliefs, before appointing blame onto those who most of all have suffered under its unforgiving hands: Muslims.

By Catherine Shakdam – This article was published first in the American Herald Tribune